Dubai-last two days

My sister finally did arrive at the house. The next two days were so full that it is almost a blur looking back now.

I must have drank less water the last few days because I was so tired and sick.

Once my sister arrived we all squeezed her, chatted a bit, gave her a house tour, then she and I went up to our room to chat until going to bed.

THe next morning we got up early to head to the Orthodontist so I could pick up my retainer.

I have never had a removable retainer before so I walked out of the dental office talking with a lisp and fighting back an unbelievable amount of drool.

                                                                      DURRR....

We immediately walked to the Caribou coffee next store and sat around drinking coffee and eating little goodies.

After out coffee break we went to the Medinat Souk in Jumeriah.

I had been by there a number of times and had become pretty curious about it.

It was like Karama but indoors and a bit more pricey because of it's strong tourist location.

It was a really neat place though.

I just could not get enough of the architecture everywhere in Dubai. SO wonderful.

We wandered through the shops touching all of the different fabrics and admiring all the pretty things. I could hardly contain myself at times at the sight of all the beautiful saturated colors.

Mom and Dad were pretty worn out by then and wanted to go home and nap. Silly.

I believe this was the day that I had a really unconventiional lunch and loved every second of it.

I grabbed some Egyptian bread out of the fridge and there was a wide variety of cheese at the house, so I had a little bread and cheese tasting by myself.

It was wonderful. There were al sorts of cheeses that I had never tasted before. I LOVE CHEESE!!

That night we were planning to eat outside of the Dubai mall and watch the fountain show that goes on right between the restaurants and the Burj Kalifa.

We found a nice place with Sandwiches, soups and salads.

I can't believe it took me until the last night there to order a Mocktail. (They do not drink Alcohol in Dubai, which is brilliant. Especially considering how crazy the driving is already. :p)

The fountain show was beautiful. They happened about every 20 minutes or so.

We watched many of them.

After eating we walked through a souk that was just next door to us and saw what it had to offer. Again it was an indoor one and sold the same things that every shop sold. Just like everything there though, there are different feels to the different places you go. The architecture, and people within, the time of day, all play a role in the feel of a place. The smells are also something else. Everything has a really enticing sandy yet perfumed smell. It was wonderful and a kind of exotic and mysterious scent.

( I identify with scents, thus I couldn't help mentioning it.)

Julia and I went and sat outside on the large steps leading to the souk and just relaxed, talked, people watched, beautiful men watched (hehehe ;) and waited for the next fountain show to start. we watched at least two shows from that very spot. It was really nice. There is just something special about the relationships between sisters.

 After the fountain shows and dinner we went home and tried to make it to the pool before it closed. We barely missed it. The guard was walking to the pool just 30 steps ahead of us to close it.

So back to the villa we walked.

I can't remember the rest of the night but I bet it was low key.

The next morning we were up early to go up in the Burj Kalifa.

We had boght our tickets the night before. We got a bit turned around on the way there and were a bit worried that we would be late, but all worked out just fine.

We walked through hallways containing information on the planning and building of the building, then we were squeezed into and elevator that took us up a bit over half way. (You cannot go to the top which is crazy to me.).

There was an observation deck outside as well as windows all around that afforded a view of all Dubai from everyside of the Kalifa.

I'm  giant....ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!

We walked through alot of the Dubai mall on a quest for Camels milk chocolate. The mall is quite an experience. It is HUGE and has random things all over.

There is a skating rink inside, a giant waterfall with sculpted divers in it, and a huge area of feather butterflies suspended from the ceiling.

We had an interesting time finding our way back to our car in the giant parking garage.

Julia and I were dropped off at the Batutta mall after.

I wanted to go back and look at the beautiful colors and what not in the mall and I wanted to make sure Julia saw it.

We also stocked up on a ridiculous amount of henna.

We walked through the mall and took in all of it. The wonderful colors, smells, architecture...all of it!!!

The funniest thing though was the music they played in the stores. They played songs from the states about drinking and well everything that the mainstream songs talk about. It was just weird because they aren't allowed to drink there, but they have all these songs playing about getting drunk. They also do an odd job about editing it. They edit out the word "sex" from songs but will leave the F bomb in a song.

interesting??
 I thought it was.

We hailed a cab home after. By some miracle we also managed to direct the cab driver through the winding subdivision that was plagued with dead ends. It was quite a feat.

I want to say we swam after that, but I could be wrong.

I did some henna on Julia's hand and she and I ordered some Thai food. Soon after dinner I headed out for the airport. It was a sad ordeal.

The flight back was so long. It took me 28 hours from arrival at the Dubai airport to walking out of the Boise airport. What a long flight.

I was so happy to be back. When you finally find that place that feels like home, you know it. It took me 19 years but I found a home, and it feels great.